Crossing the border with Blue Jays beat reporter Jordan Bastian.

Cecil, Maroth out of rotation race + pregame

More coming on this later today (on bluejays.com), but just to get the news up here for you all: Brett Cecil and Mike Maroth have been returned to Minor League camp. In Maroth’s case, he’s going to talk to his agent and decide whether to accept a Minors assignment or to ask for his release.

GM J.P. Ricciardi said Cecil isn’t ready to make the club and he needs to continue to work on his fastball command. Brad Mills has been the talk of camp all spring and Ricciardi said the young lefty is “pushing the envelope” in terms of making a case for having a job in the rotation.

Matt Clement is behind Casey Janssen, Scott Richmond and Mills for one of the starting jobs, according to Ricciardi. He added that Janssen doesn’t necessarily need to open in the Minors because he is slightly behind the rest of the pitchers. He’s very much in the running for a spot.

Other moves today: Adam Loewen, Brian Dopirak and Ken Takahashi were also returned to Minors camp.

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14 Comments

So Takahashi and Maroth are gone, why not Bauer as well? I also think it’s wise to send Cecil back down, although I doubt if the decision was because of fastball control. He needs more stretching since last year was his first as a starter. I’d like to see him go 150 to 170 innings this year and then get shut down.
Doesn’t sound like Clement has been that impressive, I guess that 86-88 mph fastball might not have anymore upside or limited.
Sounds to me like Mills is coming north-can’t wait to see this kid pitch at the Rogers center.

Reading JB’s entry on Bautista, I was struck by the point made about Inglett probably being the odd man out in the last roster spot race between Inglett, Bautista and Millar, because he still has options. One of Inglett, Bautista and Millar isn’t coming north.
JP is high on Millar, just like he was high on other old guys in the past who all washed out the moment the bell rang for the regular season. He keeps bring up the point of needing more right hand power in the line-up which is pure bs and its not like we’re going to compete this year anyway.
Milllar turns 38 in September and gives us depth at 1st and 3rd. Inglett turns 31 in June and can play 2nd, 3rd, ss, lf and rf. Bautista turns 29 in October and can play 1st, 3rd and all 3 outfield positions. Bautista delivers more power than Millar and brings that rh stick off the bench.
What would be really good is if Batista feels comfortable playing ss, since Cito is going to try him there.

So why would we keep Millar? Bautista and Inglett give us more flexibility and will probably play a role next year and years after, whereas Millar is on his last legs.

I’ve always liked Millar but as gs pointed out,Inglett and Bautista are the best choice.Sure wouldn’t seem right not seeing Mighty Joe goin north after all he did last year.Both he and Bautista give the Jays way more options off the bench and are need when the injury bug bites.
Good showing for Cecil.Although he’s goin down,I’m sure we’ll see him back soon and for years to come.

I think we lose Millar or Bautista if they don’t make the club. Or can they go down to AAA? I know Inglett can go down there without risk of losing him. That being the case, I think I’d rather have him go down there, just to have that extra AAAA player in the fold for when someone goes down on injury. Chances are someone will, and he’ll be up and down most of the season anyway.

Don’t get me wrong though, doesn’t seem right for him to go down there after last year’s showing. And it’d be nice for him to finally get the stable big league job. But for the Jays, it’d probably be best to keep Millar and Bautista. MacDonald on the other hand, you could convince me otherwise, I think.

Garry
That is the most walks Mills has even given up in his professional career. He must have ran out of steam. It will be interesting to see which 2 of Richmond, Janssen and Mills comes north.
Tell you what though, you gotta like having 3 young lefties in Mills, Cecil and Romero all about to break in.

Yes, particulary if Marcum and McGowan come back by the start of next year. Cito will have some tough decisions to make with Marcum, McGowan, Litsch, Purcey, Mills, Cecil, Richmond, Janssen and Romero all in the mix. But there are bound to be a couple of injuries, there always is.

Rene, we signed Millar on a minor league contract so I assume he can go down, whether he would want to is the issue. With Bautista we would have to release him and pay him a chunk of his salary like we did Reed last year.

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